William Ogilvie, The Right of Property in Land, 1781.

SECTION II

Of the Right of Property in Land, as founded on Public Utility

15. The increase of public happiness is the true primary object which ought to claim the attention of every state. It is to be attained by increasing the common standard or measure of happiness, which every citizen may have a chance of enjoying under the protection of the State; and by increasing the number of citizens, who are to enjoy this common measure of happiness. The increase of opulence, or of dominion, are subordinate objects, and only to be pursued, as they tend to the increase of happiness, or of numbers; to both of which they are in some respects, and in certain cases, unfriendly.1

16. Whatever regulations tend directly to increase the common measure of happiness, enjoyed by each individual citizen, tend assuredly to increase the number of citizens. But every regulation tending to increase the number of citizens does not certainly tend to increase the common measure of happiness, and in various situations of the community, may tend to diminish it. The first sort of regulations is therefore to be preferred, in case of interference, to the second.

17. The happiness of individuals, or of any great body of men, is nearly in proportion to their virtue and their worth. That manner of life, therefore, which is most favourable to the virtue of the citizens, ought, for the sake of their happiness, to be encouraged and promoted by the legislature. Men employed in cultivating the soil, if suffered to enjoy a reasonable independence, and a just share of the produce of their toil, are of simpler manners, and more virtuous, honest dispositions, than any other class of men. The testimony of all observers, in every age and country, concurs in this, and the reason of it may be found in the nature of their industry, and its reward. Their industry is not like that of the labouring manufacturer, insipidly uniform, but varied, -- it excludes idleness without imposing excessive drudgery, and j its reward consists in abundance of necessary accommodations, without luxury and refinement.

18. The families which are employed in this healthful industry, and live in this comfortable independence, increase more than others in different situations of life. It is by their progeny chiefly that the waste of great cities, of armies, navies, commercial and manufacturing occupations is continually supplied.

19. The labour of men applied to the cultivation of the earth tends more to increase the public wealth, for it is more productive of things necessary for the accommodation of life, wherein all real wealth consists, than if it were applied to any other purpose; and all labour applied to refined and commercial arts, while the State can furnish or procure opportunities of applying it to the cultivation of the soil, may be said to be squandered and misapplied, unless in so far as it is given to those liberal arts, whose productions operate on the mind, and rouse the fancy or the heart.

20. The most obvious, the surest, and least equivocal indication of prosperity and happiness I is the strength and comeliness of a race of men.2

21. Those who are employed in agriculture, if not oppressed by the superior orders, if permitted to enjoy competent independence and rustic plenty, remote from the contagion of intemperance, are known to excel in strength, comeliness, and good health, every other class of men in civilized nations; and are only excelled in those respects by some simple tribes of men, who enjoy the advantages common to both in a still higher degree.

22. From all these considerations it may perhaps appear that the best, plainest, and most effectual plan which any government can pursue for increasing the happiness and the numbers of its people is to increase the number of independent cultivators, to facilitate their establishments, and to bring into that favourable situation as great a number of citizens as the extent of its territory will admit. Of two nations equal in extent of territory and in number of citizens, that may be accounted the happiest in which the number of independent cultivators is the greatest.

23. Any given country will then have the greatest possible number of independent cultivators, when each individual of mature age shall be possessed of an equal share of the soil; and in such country the common measure or standard of happiness will probably have reached its highest degree.

Whether therefore we inquire into the natural rights and privileges of men, or consult for the best interests of the greater number, the same practical regulations for the economy of property in land seem to result from either inquiry.

24. Whatsoever plans seem to promise the increase of wealth, happiness, and numbers in any other channel than the freedom and independence of cultivation, are of a more doubtful nature, and may well have their claim to public encouragement postponed until this paramount object of good policy be carried to its utmost perfection.3

25. Manufactures and commerce promise such augmentation of wealth and people. Some degree of both is requisite for the progress of agriculture, and must attend it; but neither of them can in any situation of things have any title to encouragement at the risk of obstructing independent agriculture. The balance of their respective claims may always be adjusted in the most unexceptionable manner, by leaving men wholly to their free choice, and removing all obstruction and monopoly equally from the pursuit of both. Let all freedom be given to him who has stock, to employ it in any sort of trade, manufacture, or agriculture, that he may choose; and let it be made equally easy for the farmer to acquire the full property of the soil on which he is to exercise his industry, as for the manufacturer to acquire the full property of the rude materials he is to work up.4

26. That every field should be cultivated by its proprietor, is most favourable to agriculture, and cultivation. That every individual who would choose it should be the proprietor of a field, and employed in its cultivation, is most favourable to happiness, and to virtue. In the combination of both circumstances will be found the most consummate prosperity of a people and of their country, -- and the best plan for accommodating the original right of universal occupancy with the acquired rights of labour.5